This is a freelance railroad created by myself, Neil Roggensack. I came up with this plan when I was in high school after reading about Eric Brooman's Utah Belt. The Montana Northland Railroad is a freelance, prototype, Class 1 railroad connecting Salt Lake City, Utah with Portland, Oregon; with mainlines stretching north to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The railroad provides bridge traffic between the Canadian Pacific Railroad and Canadian National Railroad and Southern Pacific at Portland, Oregon and Western Pacific and Denver and Rio Grande Western at Salt Lake City and Ogden, Utah. Milwaukee Road, Union Pacific and Burlington Northern also provide connecting traffic. Most traffic is grain, lumber, and minerals.

The railroad is located in my 30 x 60 basement and is a mushroom design with a double-deck. The mainline is 700 feet with a yard at each end and staging yards representing East and West connections beyond those yards. The railroad is run with track warrant control and car cards with way bills. This is my second layout of the Montana Northland Railroad; my first was featured in the August 2009 edition of Model Railroader.